00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:04 Leatherback sea turtles are in trouble,
00:06 with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
00:08 reporting that there are likely only around 25,000 of them
00:12 left in the wild.
00:13 Now conservationists in Thailand are trying to combat
00:16 their dwindling numbers.
00:17 Leatherback sea turtles are only recently
00:19 returning to southern Thailand for their annual egg laying.
00:22 Each season, they are expected to lay upwards of 25 eggs.
00:25 However, most don't survive to mate and lay eggs themselves.
00:29 With the senior fishery biologist
00:30 at Thailand's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources
00:33 saying about it, quote, "0.1% to 0.2%
00:36 is the survival rate of leatherback turtle hatchlings
00:39 making it to adulthood.
00:40 If 100 eggs hatch from a single nest,
00:43 we'd need 10 just for one or two turtles
00:45 to survive to adulthood."
00:46 That's why they're now releasing 11 baby leatherbacks
00:49 into the wild after they were rescued, each one tagged
00:52 with a satellite tracker, with the researchers hopeful
00:54 that they will survive and that scientists
00:56 can glean some data that will aid in conservation efforts.
00:59 Specifically, they are looking at leatherback sea turtle
01:01 travel routes, possibly eventually opening
01:04 protective corridors for the creatures.
01:06 Thailand is one of only five countries that
01:08 have been able to successfully nurse baby leatherback sea
01:11 turtles up to their first year.
01:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:17 (upbeat music)
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